Spliced fiber tray soft durometer material (SDM) manifold

ABSTRACT

A manifold for holding spliced optical fibers contained within fiberoptic ribbons in a secure and motionless manner. The manifold includes a “clamp” made from soft durometer material (SDM) such as high strength silicone mold-making rubber or dry polymer gel that has been partially sliced to a depth of about 75%. The manifold permits ease of insertion of a spliced optical fiber by itself, or a fiber associated with a ribbon, into, and removal from, an SDM-slice without disturbing other fibers, or ribbons, respectively, that are held in other slices in the manifold. In a particular embodiment SDM fills a four-sided hard plastic box to overflow. Slices in SDM are parallel to each other. The box has a hinged cover to exert pressure on overflow SDM material when the cover is closed to increase enveloping force on splice-junctions of embedded bare-glass optical fibers and on the ribbons containing those fibers. The ribbons, containing their embedded fibers, exit the box, left and right, via angled or skewed cut-outs in the side walls of the box.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of a continuation-in-part (CIP) application Ser. No. 12/534,940 filed Aug. 4, 2009 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,835,613 (hereinafter “CIP parent application”) which, in turn, is a continuation in part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/336,645 filed on Dec. 17, 2008 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,835,612 (hereinafter “parent application”), the CIP parent application and the parent application both having the same title as the title of this application. The inventive entity of the instant application is the same as that of both the CIP parent application and the parent application. The assignee of the instant application is the same as that of both the CIP parent application and the parent application. The CIP parent application and the parent application are both incorporated herein by reference. Benefits are hereby claimed under 35 §120.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

A typical fiber optic cable includes a central core including a plurality of buffer tubes each containing approximately twelve to twenty-two protectively-coated individual optical fibers. A glass fiber without its protective covering is only 125 microns in diameter, where a micron is one-millionth of a meter (hereinafter “μm”) or only 0.000039 inches.

When a splice is made between two glass fibers in the field, an individual fiber is first taken out of its buffer tube and a portion of the plastic coating is necessarily removed from the vicinity of the splice-junction. The glass fiber is scored with a special cleaver and put in a fusion machine along with the glass end from the other fiber to which it is being spliced. The fusion machine burns or melts the two glass ends together forming the splice which needs to be covered and protected.

Typically, spliced fibers in the field are maintained in fiber-separator apparatus termed a “manifold” which rests in a container termed a “splice tray.” Currently, there are two approaches to storing spliced fibers in the manifold of a splice tray. One technique is to put a heat shrink over the splice-junction of an individual glass optical fiber, shrink it down using a heat source and, thereafter, place it in a manifold spaced apart from other optical fibers being held separately in that manifold. This approach has drawbacks including an increased attenuation at the splice-junction, long down-time required for the splice operation, and attendant high cost.

The other technique is to place all fibers that are spliced into a bare-glass fiber manifold chip, where each fiber is separated from the other. Then, one spreads room-temperature vulcanized silicone (RTV) over the tops of the fibers and manifold, and covers the vulcanized combination with a clear plastic sheet to contain the RTV while it cures. With this technique, a big problem can be encountered when attempting to remove one of the fibers to get to its splice-junction. That fiber is typically removed from the RTV and cleaned with a razor-knife. This is a risky operation because neighboring fibers in the same manifold may be carrying live communication traffic, where a slip of the razor knife can easily cause an outage in one or more neighboring fibers.

Therefore, there is need for a different kind of mechanism which can address the issues noted above and permit a technician to easily insert a single fiber into, and/or remove a single fiber from, a manifold holding a plurality of other optical fibers which can be carrying communication traffic.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exemplary side view diagram of a spliced optical fiber showing splice-junction, bare glass and plastic coating;

FIG. 2 is an exemplary side view diagram of another spliced optical fiber showing splice-junction, bare glass and thicker plastic coating;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary cross-sectional diagram of an exemplary embodiment showing the spliced optical fiber of FIG. 1 immersed in soft durometer material (hereinafter: “SDM”);

FIG. 4 is a perspective exemplary diagram of an exemplary embodiment depicting a manifold having capacity for holding a plurality of spliced optical fibers;

FIG. 5 is side view of a portion of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a portion of FIG. 5 showing an end view of an embedded optical fiber which has a splice (not visible in this view) held within the SDM manifold of FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is an exemplary schematic drawing of one end of a fiber-optic ribbon cable containing twelve fibers per ribbon and twelve ribbons per cable;

FIG. 8 is an exemplary side view of an exemplary embodiment depicting a manifold having capacity for holding a plurality of spliced optical fiber ribbons; and

FIG. 9 is a vertical-plane cross section of a portion of FIG. 8 showing the bare optical fibers being firmly held by the SDM gel within the manifold of FIG. 8.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In this description, the same reference numeral in different Figs. refers to the same entity. Otherwise, reference numerals of each Fig. start with the same number as the number of that Fig. For example, FIG. 3 has numerals in the “300” category and FIG. 4 has numerals in the “400” category, etc.

In an overview, the exemplary embodiments include a manifold which may be formed, for example, from silicone rubber such as high strength silicone mold-making rubber or from dry polymer gel, either having a Shore A durometer of 10. This patent application shall refer to any material meeting this standard as a soft durometer material (hereinafter “SDM”) which shall include silicone rubber and dry polymer gel material having this durometer. “Shore A durometer” indicates the hardness (or softness) of the material and is named as such for instrument maker, Albert F. Shore, who developed a hardness measurement device called a durometer.

The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) provides at least two common durometer scales, the “A” scale for softer materials and the “D” scale for harder ones. Each scale allows values between zero (soft materials) and 100 (hard materials). For example, a rubber band can have a durometer of 25 on the A scale and a solid truck tire can have a durometer of 50 on the D scale. The durometer of materials used for manifolds herein are measured on the “A” scale.

The manifold holds an optical fiber immobile inside the SDM. The optical fiber was formed from two separate optical fibers which had previously been spliced together into a contiguous optical fiber at a splice-junction or splice-interface. The SDM manifold holds the splice-junction securely and immobile relative to the SDM itself, but the fiber can be readily removed by a technician from the manifold without disturbing other optical fibers in the manifold.

The SDM is pliable and resilient and fills a rigid housing to overflow. When a cover attached to the housing is closed upon the pliable and resilient overflow it is forced to be constrained within the closed housing. This compression of the SDM places additional protective force upon the glass fiber in the region of the optical splice, thereby ensuring that the inserted splice-interface remains immobile relative to the SDM.

Ambient temperature variations can cause expansion and contraction of non-glass materials (e.g., insulation, etc.) comprising the fiber optic cable of which a glass optical fiber is but one of its component fibers, while the glass of this optical fiber and the other optical fibers in that cable do not expand or contract appreciably. This can create stresses on the glass in the various optical fibers in the fiber optic cable including the glass associated with the splice-junction. Therefore, it is important that a splice-junction, which is weaker than unperturbed glass fiber, be held motionless to minimize stresses on the junction and to mitigate the possibility of splice-junction fracture during such expansion and contraction.

For example, if the manifold is placed in a splice tray, exposed optical fibers which have exited the enclosure of the manifold may move responsive to expansion or contraction of their fiber optic cable as a function of temperature variation. The manifold may be forced to move relative to the splice tray as a result. But, the SDM-immersed optical fiber junction, held-in-place by an effective “SDM-clamp”, itself remains immobile relative to its position within the SDM, thus minimizing the forces on the splice-junction.

This immobility is partially due to the propensity of the SDM to fill in all crevices around the splice-junction. The fused optical fibers are bare glass up to a pre-determined distance measured axially from the splice-junction and each is covered with a protective plastic coating thereafter, the fiber optic cable thus having a variation in diameter from bare glass to protected glass. Both the bare glass and the plastic coating are held by the SDM, whether the protective plastic coating is thin or thick. Although secure and immobile while being held by this SDM-clamp in a manifold constructed from this SDM, a service technician can easily access the splice-junction for servicing purposes, discussed below.

In a particular exemplary embodiment, a coverable box of general rectangular shape containing an overflowing amount of this SDM is provided. The box may be constructed from hard plastic or other suitable material. The front and back sides, or walls, of the box are solid, while the left and right sides have regularly spaced cutouts from the top of the side walls to near the bottom of the box, thereby exposing the SDM contained inside the box through the cutouts.

There are slits in the SDM, essentially parallel with the front and/or back walls of the box. Each slit is aligned with a different pair of cutouts on either side of the box to enable an optical fiber at its splice-junction to be placed within a slit while its protectively coated portions are exited left and right through its respective two cutouts. The SDM may fill the box to overflow at the top of the box, whereby heightened clamping by the SDM of all enveloped optical fibers is achieved by the compression force upon the SDM resulting from closing and locking the cover to the box.

FIG. 1 is an exemplary side view diagram of a spliced optical fiber 100 showing splice-junction, bare glass and plastic coating. Optical fiber 101 is bonded to optical fiber 102 at splice-junction 107 by way of a splicing operation. This can be accomplished by way of a fusion splicing operation or by some other splicing technique. If accomplished by some other technique, the resulting splice-junction 107 need not be orthogonal to direction of propagation of light waves within the fiber as shown, but may be offset by an angle, e.g., eight degrees. Dashed lines 103 and 104 represent the continuation of optical fibers 101 and 102 respectively beneath protective plastic coatings 105 and 106 respectively. The outside diameter of protective plastic coatings 105 and 106 is designated D₁.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary side view diagram of another spliced optical fiber showing splice-junction, bare glass and thicker plastic coating. Optical fiber 201 is bonded to optical fiber 202 at splice-junction 207 by way of a splicing operation and the splicing discussion of FIG. 1 above applies to FIG. 2 as well. Dashed lines 203 and 204 represent the continuation of optical fibers 201 and 202 respectively beneath protective plastic coatings 205 and 206 respectively. The outside diameter of protective plastic coatings 205 and 206 is designated D₂.

Bare glass fibers 101/102 and 201/202 may have a 125 μm diameter while the outside diameter D₁ of thin plastic coating 105/106 wrapped around the glass fiber may be 250 μm and the outside diameter D₂ of thick protective plastic coating 205/206 (i.e., a “pigtail” coating) can be 900 μm. The SDM specified herein shall fill the entire cylindrical crevice (e.g., space 208 in FIG. 2 and a comparable space in FIG. 1) formed by the optical fiber diameter variation, from 125 to 250 μm as shown in FIG. 1 or from 125 to 900 μm as shown in FIG. 2, thereby helping to hold the splice motionless. This SDM shall perform in this manner with respect to other variations in outside diameter as well. This operation is further detailed in FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary cross-sectional diagram of an exemplary embodiment 300, the diagram being derived from vertical plane slice III taken through the longitudinal axes of glass fibers 101 and 102 as shown in FIG. 1. Therefore, peripheries 103 and 104 of glass fibers 101 and 102 are shown as solid lines in this FIG. 3, in contrast with hidden lines in FIG. 1. Glass fibers 101 and 102 are shown spliced-together at splice-junction 107.

SDM 301, in a exemplary embodiment, may be a high strength silicone mold-making rubber or a non-sticky, dry-polymer gel (or an equivalent material thereto), either material having, e.g., a Shore A durometer greater than 5 and less than 20. The rubber can be obtained from various suppliers such as, e.g., Dow Coming under the brand name Silastic. The gel can be obtained from various suppliers which, e.g., can be made to order by Soft Polymer Systems located in Gardena, Calif. As can be seen from FIG. 3, SDM 301 envelops glass fibers 101 and 102 as well as plastic protective coverings 105 and 106. Crevice 302 is a cylindrical space surrounding glass fibers 101 and 102 and that space is completely filled with SDM 301. This filling of this crevice helps to hold splice-joint 107 immobile relative to SDM-material 301.

FIG. 4 is a perspective exemplary diagram of an exemplary embodiment depicting a manifold 400 having capacity for holding a plurality of spliced optical fibers. Manifold 400 may be comprised of a hard plastic box 414 having four sides, a bottom and a closable lid. The bottom of the box (not shown in this Fig.) is solid. The front wall 401 and its counterpart rear wall (not shown in this Fig.) also are solid. Side wall 412 and its counterpart, the opposite side wall (not shown in this Fig.) have a number of cut-outs such as cut-out 413. Each side wall has the same number of similarly-shaped and regularly-spaced cut-outs, such that each side wall is the mirror-image of the other. The cut-outs extend from the tops of these side walls down to near the bottom of the box. There is also a hinged cover 402 made from the same hard plastic as the rest of the box which is operable by a service technician who can close and lock the cover with latch 410A engaging clasp 410B.

SDM 301 is shown contained within box 414 but is shown to intentionally overflow the box which can be seen, e.g., at location 411. SDM 301 was pre-sliced before insertion into the box, and six slices 404, 405, 406, 407, 408 and 409 are shown. A design for more slices, such as twelve slices, can be readily made. The slices are approximately three-quarters of the height of the SDM, and the bottoms of the slices are preferably higher than the bottoms of the cutouts, such as the bottom of cutout 413, shown in more detail in FIG. 5. Manifold 400 is thus capable of holding up to six separate optical fibers, each being separately spliced. Each spliced fiber is inserted into a different slice, and is held by SDM at the bottom of, and/or by SDM within the walls of, the slice, to be discussed further in connection with FIG. 5.

FIG. 5 is a partial side view of FIG. 4 showing a side wall in detail but not showing the complete cover 402. The opposite side wall (not seen in this view) substantially matches the one that is shown. The bottom of each cut-out, such as the bottom of cut-out 413, may be the same distance from the bottom of the box as the other cut-outs. SDM 301 is shown filling the box and overflowing the top of side wall 412. Six slits 404-409 are shown, with the bottom of each slit located above the bottom of its respective cut-out. In slit 407, an end view of an optical fiber 501 is shown, the fiber having previously been inserted or buried in slit 407 and held in place by SDM 301 forming the bottom and walls of slit 407. When solid cover or lid 402 is closed shut, after insertion of fiber 501, by connecting latch 410A to clasp 410B, the overflowed SDM portion is forced into the constraints of the closed box. The closed cover thus exerts a downward pressure or force in direction P on SDM 301. This causes the SDM to increase its holding and protective force upon optical fiber 501.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a portion of FIG. 5 showing an end view of an embedded optical fiber which has a splice (not visible in this view) held within the SDM manifold of FIG. 4. Guide lines 601 and 602 show the relationship between the two Figs. In this view, optical fiber 501 is expanded to show optical glass fiber 101 surrounded by protective plastic coating 105. SDM 301 is shown holding optical fiber 501 firmly without permitting relative motion between the buried optical fiber and the SDM of the manifold in which it is held.

To remove spliced optical fiber 501 for whatever reason, a technician merely opens cover 402 to relieve the pressure on SDM 301 and then carefully spreads apart the walls of slit 407. By carefully pulling on the fiber cable located outside of the SDM-clamp, for example, using an upward motion possibly along with a simultaneous back and forth motion in the axial direction, the fiber gripped within slit 407 of the SDM-clamp is slid upward and out from slit 407. No razor knife or other special tool is needed, wherefore the time to remove the cable, and the hazard otherwise associated with removing the cable, are both substantially reduced.

FIG. 7 is an exemplary schematic drawing of the inside of one end of a fiber-optic ribbon cable 700 containing twelve fibers per ribbon and twelve ribbons per cable. In a fiber optic ribbon, the optical fibers are positioned alongside each other in a parallel direction, and each fiber is separated, and optically isolated, from the others. Fiber optic ribbon is commercially available and offers a variety of total number of optical fibers per ribbon; for example, Corning Cable Systems provides a fiber count of 2, 4, 8, 12 or 24 optical fibers per ribbon. The present application shows a twelve-count ribbon in FIG. 7, merely as an example, and is not limited to any particular ribbon having any particular optical fiber count.

Just as there is need for splicing a single optical fiber, need also arises for splicing a fiber optic ribbon where the entire ribbon and all of its embedded fibers had been previously cut in two. All of the fibers in the ribbon shall, therefore, need to be spliced, whether two fibers in a two fiber ribbon, or 24 fibers in a 24 fiber ribbon. There are commercially-available fiber optic ribbon splicers for this purpose, which can splice, for example, each fiber embedded within a first twelve-fiber ribbon to its companion fiber embedded within a second twelve fiber ribbon.

In FIG. 7, fiber optic ribbon cable 700 includes, in this example, twelve ribbons, 701-712 inclusive, side by side, shown as columns in FIG. 7. Each ribbon includes, in this example, twelve optical fibers, such as fibers 701A-701L, inclusive, at the left hand side of the diagram, comprising ribbon 701. All other fibers in all of the other ribbons are intentionally not shown and labeled, to avoid crowding and thereby enhance clarity of presentation. However the right-most ribbon 712 shows its first optical fiber 712A and its twelfth optical fiber 712L for sake of completeness. Each of these fibers is shown on end, each fiber being positioned parallel to, while being isolated from, all others embedded within its ribbon, as shown. Encapsulating the twelve ribbons and the twelve fibers per ribbon is a cable material, not shown, which may be circular in cross section. It provides an outer insulation for, and an outer protection of, the 144 optical fibers included within.

FIG. 8 is a side view of an exemplary embodiment depicting a manifold 800 having capacity for holding, e.g., twelve spliced optical fiber ribbons, each containing twelve individual fibers. Manifold 800 may be comprised of a hard plastic box similar to that of FIG. 4, but probably larger in at least the front-to-back dimension (from left to right in FIG. 8). Like the manifold of FIG. 4, manifold 800 also has four walls, a bottom and a closable lid (bottom and three walls not shown in FIG. 8). The bottom of the box is solid (not shown). The front wall and its counterpart rear wall are also solid (both not shown). Side wall sections 800 a and 800 b and their counterpart, the opposite side wall (not shown), have a number of cut-outs such as cut-out 816. Each side wall has the same number of similarly-shaped and regularly-spaced cut-outs, such that each side wall is the minor-image of the other. The cut-outs extend from the tops of the side walls down to near the bottom of the box.

FIG. 8 is similar to FIG. 5, where FIG. 8 depicts a manifold which is dedicated to protecting splices between fibers in fiber optic ribbon while FIG. 5 depicts a manifold which is dedicated to protecting splices between fibers in singular fiber-optic cable. One significant difference between the embodiments in the two Figs. is that cut-outs 413 in FIG. 5 are shown as vertically oriented, or parallel to side corners of the manifold, while comparable cutouts 816 in FIG. 8 are shown oriented at an angle, e.g., approximately a 45° angle relative to the bottom of the manifold. This angle could be slightly more, or less, than 45°. Manifold 800 is shown in a broken view where side wall portions 800 a and 800 b, although both comprising the same sidewall of the same manifold box structure 800, are shown mutually separated by broken lines 813 to enable presentation of FIG. 8 on a single drawing sheet.

As noted, manifold 800 of FIG. 8 is similar to, but different from, the manifold of FIG. 5. Manifold 800 is made from the same hard plastic material that the manifold of FIG. 5 is made from. The FIG. 5 manifold, as shown, holds up to six individual fibers; the FIG. 8 manifold, as shown, holds up to 12 fiber optic ribbons with 12 optical fibers per ribbon or 144 individual fibers in total. As noted, the side-wall slots such as slot 413 of FIG. 5 are vertically oriented, but the side-wall slots of FIG. 8, such as slot 816, are angled approximately 45° from vertical (i.e., 45° from the plane of the bottom), for reasons discussed below. SDM 817 a and 817 b are a single contiguous soft durometer material—the same as that used in the manifold of FIG. 5. The gel material is contained within manifold 800, and is shown in FIG. 8 as being located behind manifold side wall 800 a/b as well as protruding above the top of the manifold wall as it also does in FIG. 5. There are twelve slits in the gel material identified as slits 801-812 inclusive. Slit 801 is shown holding ribbon 701 which, in turn, contains twelve dots representing the ends of twelve optical fibers embedded within ribbon 701. Optical fiber 701A is the same optical fiber which occupies the upper-left-most position in the matrix presentation of FIG. 7. Each “circle” embedded within ribbon 701 which, in turn is held within slit 801 represents, on end, one of the 701A-701L glass fibers of FIG. 7.

Although ribbon 701 is shown as being held by gel 817 a in FIG. 8, because of the splicing of its fibers as discussed herein, there is no requirement that the other eleven ribbons in cable 700 must also be spliced at this time. in other words, although all twelve ribbons may have been removed from, or at least perturbed within, their outer-protective cable material sheath (not shown) in order to reach ribbon 701, and although there are 144 optical fibers intended to be represented in FIG. 7, only ribbon 701 might need to have been cut and spliced. The other eleven ribbons may remain intact and, therefore, can remain outside of the manifold. That is what is shown in FIG. 8, because there are no ribbons shown in slits 802-812 inclusive. This means that those slits are currently unoccupied without fiberoptic ribbons embedded therein, although there is capacity to receive all twelve ribbons containing 144 optical fibers total within manifold 800. The other eleven exposed or perturbed ribbons can be protected by taping them together over the seam where the outer cable protective sheath was cut to reach ribbon 701.

A portion of hard plastic cover or lid 814 is shown in the upper left of FIG. 8. This lid is similar to lid 402 used in FIG. 5. After a previously cut ribbon including its optical fibers with their respective splice-junctions, has been carefully placed within slit 801 so that the splice junctions are separated from each other as shown in FIG. 9, discussed below, the lid is closed down in a clockwise direction upon the top of gel 817 a/b, and the lid is locked at latching mechanism 815. This squashes or compresses the gel onto the twelve optical fibers that are embedded in slit 801, holding them, as well as previously cut ribbon 701 that is also placed in slit 801, even more firmly. Because of the orientation of the 45° angle measured from vertical or from plane of the bottom, relative to the clockwise direction of angular motion of the lid around its hinged axis 818, the lid presses upon the gel in a manner that does not push one bare fiber or its splice junction against, or substantially closer to, the others. Rather, the lid presses down upon the fibers uniformly and in a direction that enables the fibers and splice junctions to remain mutually separated within the gel.

It is important that bare glass fibers with spliced junctions avoid touching each other. Such avoidance enhances the probability that their respective spliced-junctions shall not be disturbed or broken, where broken or disturbed spliced-junctions could otherwise impose unwanted attenuation or loss of optical signal. If a particular fiber within the dozen fibers held in slit 801 needs to be physically manipulated by a technician, the technician can carefully remove and expose each fiber's spliced junction ahead of (i.e., above) the particular fiber until the desired fiber is also exposed. After the technician attends to the desired fiber, all removed fibers can be returned to the slit in the opposite order from which they were removed, again maintaining separation between each fiber. The slit can be approximately one-sixteenth of an inch wide to allow easy insertion and removal of the fibers and portions of the ribbons in which they are embedded.

FIG. 9 is a vertical-plane partial cross section of FIG. 8 showing certain bare optical fibers being firmly held by SDM gel 817 a within the manifold of FIG. 8. Slits 801-805 are depicted on edge as being immersed in SDM 817 a, which is the same as SDM 301. Each one of the twelve circles 701A through 701L inclusive in FIG. 9, which are the same as the optical fibers 701A through 701L, respectively, of FIG. 7, represents a bare optical fiber or a splice junction of a bare optical fiber. As depicted in FIG. 9, slit 801 closes tightly around each one of the twelve circles (glass fibers) to show that each optical fiber within fiberoptic ribbon 701 is firmly held by, and supported in, SDM 817 a in manifold 800. The optical fibers are held even more firmly when placed under additional pressure applied to SDM 817 a by the closed and locked lid 814. Consistent with no ribbons shown in slits 802-812 of FIG. 8, slits 802, 803, 804 and 805 in FIG. 9 are shown devoid of optical fibers. The vertical plane slice of this view does not slice through ribbon 701 itself which was previously peeled back from the location of the physical cut made through ribbon 701 and its twelve optical fibers by a technician for purposes of accessing and manipulating at least one of the twelve glass fibers. However, because of that physical cut, all twelve glass fibers required fusion splicing or other splicing to make the ribbon fully operational again. It should be understood from ribbon 701 being embedded in slit 801 shown in FIG. 8, that portions of cut ribbon 701 are clamped within SDM 817 a in addition to the clamped bare fibers of cut ribbon 701 with their respective splice junctions.

In the preceding specification, various exemplary embodiments have been described with reference to the accompanying drawings. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto, and additional embodiments may be implemented, without departing from the broader scope of the invention as set forth in the claims that follow. For example, other types of soft durometer materials, not necessarily limited to silicone rubber or polymer gel, but having similar characteristics thereto can be used. More or fewer than six or twelve optical fibers per manifold can be provided. Therefore, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than restrictive sense. 

1. A method, comprising: splicing together two separate glass optical fibers, each from a different one of two fiber-optic ribbons into a single contiguous optical fiber, thereby forming a splice-interface; and protecting said splice-interface by inserting a portion of said contiguous optical fiber including said splice-interface and said ribbons into a Soft Durometer Material (SDM) having a Shore A durometer greater than 5 and less than 20; and compressing said SDM to ensure that said inserted splice-interface remains immobile relative to said SDM.
 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising: removing said contiguous optical fiber from said SDM without disturbing said splice-interface or disturbing any other optical fibers associated with said different optical fiber ribbons or with other fiber optic ribbons held within said SDM.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein said SDM fills a rigid housing to overflow capacity to obtain overflow SDM, said compressing further comprising: closing a cover attached to said housing upon said overflow SDM to constrain said overflow SDM within said closed housing, whereby additional protective and restrictive force is placed upon said splice-interface.
 4. The method of claim 3 wherein said protecting is accomplished by operation of apparatus comprising: a gel-filled box with a plurality of mutually-parallel slits formed in said gel, each slit configured to receive, hold and protect one pair of fiberoptic ribbons including a plurality of fused optical fibers optically coupling said one pair of fiberoptic ribbons to each other, said plurality of optical fibers each including a respective splice junction formed between companion pairs of said fused optical fibers, each optical fiber of one of said companion pairs of said fused optical fibers being associated with a different ribbon of said pair of fiberoptic ribbons.
 5. The method of claim 4 wherein the number of said plurality of mutually parallel slits is 2, 4, 8, 12 or 24, said one pair of fiberoptic ribbons having 2, 4, 8, 12 or 24 fibers, respectively.
 6. The method of claim 4 wherein said apparatus further comprises: a closable and latchable lid for said box which, when latched closed, compresses said gel inside said closed box to impose forces on said fused optical fibers in a direction that does not encourage movement of different said pairs of said fused optical fibers towards each other.
 7. The method of claim 3 wherein said protecting is accomplished by operation of apparatus comprising: SDM for holding two separate optical fiber ribbons which have been spliced-together into a plurality of contiguous optical fibers at a like plurality of respective splice-junctions, said SDM holding said plurality of contiguous optical fibers including holding said splice-junctions securely and immobile while also affording accessibility to said splice-junctions by a service technician for servicing purposes.
 8. The method of claim 7 wherein each of said two separate glass optical fibers is bare glass at, and up to predetermined distances from, said respective splice-junction and is covered with plastic coating thereafter, and wherein said bare glass and said plastic coating are both held by said SDM.
 9. The method of claim 8 wherein said SDM has optical properties substantially identical to those of said plastic coating whereby unwanted absorption or reflectivity of light being transmitted through said contiguous optical fiber by said SDM is eliminated or mitigated.
 10. A method, comprising: splicing together two separate glass optical fibers, each of said fibers from a different one of two fiber-optic ribbons, into a single contiguous optical fiber, thereby forming a splice-interface; and protecting said splice-interface by filling a rigid housing with a Soft Durometer Material (SDM) to overflow capacity to obtain overflowed SDM; inserting a portion of said contiguous optical fiber including said splice-interface and said ribbons into said SDM; and compressing said SDM to ensure that said inserted splice-interface remains immobile relative to said SDM by closing a cover attached to said housing upon said overflowed SDM to constrain said overflowed SDM within said closed housing; wherein said protecting is accomplished by operation of apparatus comprising a gel-filled box with a plurality of mutually-parallel slits formed in said gel, each one of said slits configured to receive, hold and protect a different pair of fused-together fiber optic ribbons, one said pair being said two fiberoptic ribbons containing a plurality of fused optical fibers optically coupling said two fiberoptic ribbons to each other, said plurality of fused optical fibers each including a respective splice junction formed between companion pairs of said fused optical fibers, each optical fiber of one of said companion pairs of said fused optical fibers being associated with said different one of said two fiber-optic ribbons.
 11. The method of claim 10 wherein said apparatus further comprises: a closable and latchable lid for said box which, when latched closed, compresses said gel inside said closed box to impose forces on said fused optical fibers in a direction that does not encourage movement of different said pairs of said fused optical fibers towards each other.
 12. The method of claim 10 wherein the number of said plurality of mutually parallel slits is 2, 4, 8, 12 or 24, said one pair of fiberoptic ribbons having 2, 4, 8, 12, or 24 fibers, respectively. 